HomeGainers (and anyone else who wants to attend) have an incredible opportunity this month. For the past two years, your pin-stripe suited cousins on Wall Street have been pooh-poohing real estate as a viable retirement planning investment. Securities statements are coming out around the 5th or 6th of December and you have a chance to get some business. Over 90% of the “white shoe” investment firms’ $1 million clients are seeking advice elsewhere. Only 29% of the clients of the smaller, “boutique firms” will be leaving their advisers.

What’s your plan to get some of that money?

Do you know how to compare the S&P500 to responsibly leveraged residential real estate? The S&P 500 is lower than it was a decade ago. Today, it’s trading at 857 while it was over 900 in 1998. At it’s peak in the last decade, the index broached 1600 (last year) , almost twice of its current value. This means some 40-50 year olds have seen 30-40% of their retirement accounts drop in value…

…and they’re very scared.

If an investor wanted to double his money in the next ten years, leaving it in the S&P500 may just do it. What would a single-family home, in a good area, need to appreciate, to achieve the same goal?

…about 3.3% per year. In other words, can a home selling for $200,000 today, sell for $300,000 in ten years? If you can confidently answer “yes” to that question, you can compete with the Wall Street titans for their former clients’ money…and I’ll show you how to do it..for free*

* There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If you like what you hear on the call, I’ll hope to earn the right to help your new clients with their financing. It’s not mandatory but I might just help you snare a new client.

When my neighbor gives me the phone number of his brother who is moving to Atlanta, I have something that I don’t have when I’m trying to convert an internet lead into a client.

My neighbor knows me and though I may not have ever spoken to his brother, I come equipped with some degree of trust in his eyes. I know his brother. His brother trusts me enough to refer him to me. The first two requirements needed to be successful in selling real estate have been met.

I have generated a lead and I have some level of value and trust already built in even before the first words are spoken to this new client.

Internet leads are very different. With an internet lead, I have the first requirement that I will need to be successful in that the lead is there, but, that is where it ends.

In fact, internet leads might be thought of as slightly on the negative side of trust on a scale compared to a referral lead from a friend or neighbor. To convert them, we need to be polished in our phone skills. We are already fighting against the idea that we will be calling someone who might see us as salespeople and that’s a battle best fought if we are concise, polite, helpful and knowledgeable on the phone.

I’ve been selling real estate for over eight years now and have had the privilege of observing both successful and unsuccessful Realtors. I have worked in the same office with and have been involved in transactions with some of the top producers in my area.

One thing I have observed about their business is that their lead generation is mostly systematic. Not all of them receive their leads the same way but the big producers have built up a consistent lead generation system where most of their clients contact them. Of course, there are successful Realtors who are out door knocking and cold calling but the largest producers seem to be chased and not chasing.

Where to Get Leads?

There are many ways to “skin a cat”. Realtors can farm geographic areas, build a web presence, advertise in print, use direct mail, purchase leads, or network with their sphere of influence. All of the avenues can lead to success. You just have to decide which of them work best for you. Non computer savvy Realtors barely know how to turn on a computer so they might not be suited to focus on the web. A new agent with few contacts may find it difficult to live off of their sphere of influence. There are very successful agents out there in virtually every market using one or all of these avenues to garner leads. If you do just one of these extremely well you will generate plenty of leads.

Goal: Be Chased, Don’t Be Chasing

If you have been in the business long enough you have probably cold called or door knocked. Some love it while the majority of the agents I speak with generally do not. Your ultimate goal as a Realtor is Continue reading this post

…and real estate will lead us out of it. Today’s news that the Federal Reserve will buy as much as $600 billion of debt sent interest rates on the average 30 year fixed mortgage down from about 6.25% to 5.5%.

With interest rates low and prices down 40% in some areas, real estate transaction volumes could pick up as real estate could once again become a very attractive investment.

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